Since the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Courtdecision in 1973, the abortion issue inthe United States has been a politicalhot potato polarized into two campsstamped pro-choice and pro-life. Fundamen-tally, pro-choice proponents claim that awoman has the right to determine what happens inside her own body, including theright to destroy an embryo. Pro-lifers maketheir stand on the rights of the unborn child as a human being. Both sides claim that their respective platforms rest on an ethicalfoundation of basic human rights.Government legislation on this issue oftentakes the so-called middle ground: that abor-tion can be legally sanctioned in early preg-nancy but forbidden after a specified numberof weeks of the development of the fetus in the mother’s womb.The stakes are high. After all, the linebetween murder—the unlawful taking of a human life—and legal abortion hinges on the question of when human life begins.Debate over when life beginsThe arguments center on the criteria thatdetermine when an embryo or fetus can becalled human. Most pro-lifers claim humanlife begins at conception. Many pro-choiceproponents claim that abortion is acceptableonly in early stages of pregnancy.Some argue that human life begins withbrain activity, while others claim that abortionshould be legal during any stage of pregnancy.This last position has led to procedures suchas partial-birth abortions, in which a partiallydelivered fetus has its skull punctured and col-lapsed to make the remains easier to removefrom the mother’s body.A professor at Princeton University hastaken the debate even farther. Dr. Peter Singer,a professor of bioethics, maintains that moth-ers should have the right to kill any baby thatis physically or mentally disabled for up to 28 days after birth. His rationale is that a babyisn’t a thinking, self-aware person at this time.Even most pro-choice proponents wouldfind Professor Singer’s position repugnant. Yetthe all-important question remains: Who andwhat determines the point when an embryo orfetus is no longer considered mere tissue but a distinct life with the moral right to live?The question is vital to the more than 3,000babies who will be aborted in the UnitedStates in the next 24 hours.The ripple effect of Roe vs. Wade has dra-matically changed American society. A 1998U.S. News & World Reportarticle concludedthat, at current rates, more than four in 10American women may have an abortion intheir lifetime.“The statistic is astonishing: 43 percent of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime, if current rates are sustained.That would mean, for better or worse, abor-tion is as common a life experience forwomen as divorce—and more than threetimes more common than breast cancer. Itwould mean that more than twice as manywomen have abortions as get college degrees.

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